


Ashes and Rage

by itwasamistakeokay



Category: Peppa Pig (Cartoon)
Genre: Drug Use, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Not Suitable/Safe For Work, Other, Recreational Drug Use, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Sex, Teacher-Student Relationship, Underage Drinking, Underage Sex, Well-Written, cursed in general
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:46:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22046599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itwasamistakeokay/pseuds/itwasamistakeokay
Summary: Peppa's edgy. Freddie has an addiction. Candy's keeping secrets. Suzy can't admit that she has feelings for Peppa. Pedro's dad wants him to take over the family business but Pedro isn't sure that he's that serious.There's a weird prophecy floating around Santa Monica from the Church of Genesis, the church Candy Cat's family follows, that may or may not bring the destruction of Eden High and it's residents but everyone is too high to really pay attention.Peppa Pig as you've never seen her before, maybe even as you never asked to see her.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	1. Why'd you only call me when you're high

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from 'Why'd you only call me when you're high' by the Arctic Monkeys
> 
> The official Ashes and Rage playlist can be found on YouTube or on Spotify, the playlist is what the authors/artists listen to while producing this bullshit. Each chapter is named after a lyric from a song, said song will be stated at the beginning of the chapter.

The force of her phone’s vibration sent the stupidly sized device buzzing off the coffee table, clattering to the concrete floor jarringly. Hazy smells of recently smoked weed and sweet vodka clung to the fabric of the mismatched chairs, beanbags and rugs littering the floor with a healthy amount of unknown fluids stained upon them. If the sound of the phone falling bothered any of her passed out friends, Peppa wasn’t exactly in the headspace to find out as she leaned forward with a dizzy light behind her itchy eyes and clumsily pulled the phone up from the floor. Pressing her thumb against the power button, the screen gave her a warning of low power before showing three missed calls from her father. Nine percent was enough to answer a call, right? It wasn’t like her dad had much to say to her anyway, she hadn’t seen him in months. 

Fisting her hand into her eye, Peppa groaned as she slid the pad of her thumb across the notification and called her father back. Leaning her head back against the weirdly textured back of the seat, she held the buzzing phone to her ear and tugged at the thick strand of black hair standing out from the pale hue of her naturally pink fringe. 

“Peppa?” Her dad sounded wide awake, he was probably as high as she was.

“What the fuck d’you want?” The words were slurred. She’d only fallen asleep two hours ago and she’d been taking some pretty heavy shit so she was surprised she was awake at all; he could fucking deal with his baked daughter if he was going to call at this hour.

“D-...does she miss me?” Six months ago, Mr Pig had come home from an architecture conference in San Diego to find his wife of nearly twenty years with her boss picnicking between her thighs. She’d filed for divorce two weeks later and he was trying to hold off signing them for as long as possible, mistakenly convinced that she’d take him back and realised how wrong she was. Peppa was thankful that she wasn’t even mildly interested in any of the deadbeat boys she’d grown up with in England because she’d seen how shittily ‘childhood sweethearts’ had turned out for her parents, and there was no way she was fucking one mediocre asshole for the rest of her fucking life.

“Jesus FUCKING Christ, Joseph Percival Pig, WHY THE FUCK WOULD I KNOW?”

“Y-you live with her, George won’t tell me anything,”

“THAT’S BECAUSE HE DOESN’T FUCKING TRUST YOU, YOU ASSHAT,” The volume of Peppa’s voice stirred an almost completely comatose Freddie, his bleary green eyes blinking for a moment before he rolled over on his bean bag and crashed again completely. She considered keeping it down but he’d nearly drank a whole bottle of vodka to himself, there was a slim chance he’d wake up again even if the apocalypse happened. “I BARELY LIVE WITH HER TOO. I KINDA LIVE IN FREDDIE’S FUCKIN’ BASEMENT.”

“Wait, Freddie...Freddie is Marty’s kid, right?” 

“Dad, I am so fucking close to hanging up on you right now. How coked out are you?”

“Two...maybe eight lines,” 

“Jesus Christ almighty, your fucking immune system is fuckin’ alcatraz. Full of ghosts but somehow still working,”

“Is that a compliment?” He sounded hopeful. It was not a compliment; it would never be anywhere near a compliment. The closest thing Peppa had given her father to a compliment in the last four years had been a kick in the balls for his birthday before she took a fifty from his wallet and blew it on weed. It wasn’t her fault that he’d tried to hug her, he’d practically asked for it. 

“Eat a bag of dicks,” Peppa hung up without a second thought and threw her phone across the room, watching it fall somewhere between Pedro and Gerald’s passed out forms. Beside her, Emily grunted and rolled off the cushions, thudding to the floor none the wiser to her sudden change in bed. A loud moan echoed through the basement as Freddie finally pulled himself out of the sunken bean bag, just in time to have not suffocated himself in the fabric. 

“Pep? Who was that?” His words were still slurred from the amount of acid still coursing through his system, bracing her elbows on her thighs, she glared at him with a tight-lipped grimace. “Was that your daddy?” A loud, obnoxious laugh left his red stained lips, drawing Peppa to chuck the homemade bong resting beside her directly at his head. He didn’t move fast enough to dodge the modified hydroflask, the heavy metal smacking into his chest and winding him with an oof. The laughter didn’t subside. “Who’s is this?”

“It’s Suzy’s,” Light giggles bubbled past Peppa’s lips as she cracked her neck and reached for one of the half smoked hand-rolled cigarettes lying in the table before her. She wasn’t sure if it was Emily’s or Pedro’s, it certainly wasn’t Gerald’s seeing as Freddie had slipped the poor guy five tabs of acid for his first time on drugs and Gerald had passed out twenty minutes after taking them, he hadn’t woken up once since he’d passed out. They weren’t sure if he was alive but they were all too high to care or even remember to check. 

“Hah, figured, you like stealin’ her shit,” Freddie plucked a lighter from his pocket and flicked it to Peppa, who held the end of the butt between her lips as she cupped her hand around the dancing flame and set the tip alight, inhaling the sweet smoke deeply. His face fell into a serious mask, his eyes still hazy with the drugs in his system and a slight tic underneath his left eye but the rest of his features were painted with an utter seriousness she didn’t see often. Freddie knew about the divorce and knew that Peppa had been fielding calls like that from her dad for weeks, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about how she was taking it. They were her parents after all. “Was that your dad though?”

“Of fuckin’ course it was,” She grumbled, taking a drag and exhaling a long trail of grey tinged smoke from her nose. “Why the actual fuck does he only call me when he’s high?”

“How many’d he pop this time?” He didn’t actually care, if Peppa’s dad died of an overdose he’d just live with the knowledge of how much acid he could take before his body gave out. 

“Coke, not acid,” Peppa took another long drag, nudging Emily with her toe as the other girl tried to raise her head and failed dismally. 

“How much’d he do?” 

“He said like eight lines, seeing as he could speak I’m guessin’ that the limit to how much coke you can do is not eight lines,” Freddie grinned, the red veins ringing his eyes glowing in the dim light of the musty basement. 

“Damn, son, your daddy’s immune system is fuckin’ alcatraz,” 

“That’s what I fucking said,”

“Where’d’ya think you got it from?” 

“I dunno where I got most’a my quotes from and I don’t think you know either,”

“Jerry Seinfeld,” Lifting her head from the floor for a split second, Emily’s slurred words made next to no sense, their relevance completely lost to her two much more sober friends. Smacking the crown of her head against the edge of the glass table, Emily collapsed back onto the floor again.

“I think that guy might be my read dad,” Freddie chimes in, Peppa leaning forward, massaging her fingers against Emily’s scalp, feeling for blood in case the glass table had sliced her best friend’s head open. Satisfied after not finding a drop of red fluid, just something weirdly sticky and matted into Emily’s hair, Peppa rolled the blue haired girl over, away from the table, and watched a stream of spit slide out of her mouth. 

“Y’know? I don’t doubt it, your mum has done some real shit,” 

“Oi, that’s my ma, man,” Jokingly annoyed, Freddie scowled and reached for the close to empty bottle of vodka stashed not too far away from his sunken bean bag.

“Your ma is more stacked than an obese black woman,” The near perfect diction that came with Peppa’s accent didn’t help her slurred pronunciation of the words, her tongue catching on the consonants.

“I dunno what that means,”

“She’s fuckin’ hot, Fred, like ouch hot. I wanna hit that,”

“Fuck, ew, gross, man. No! You promised that you’d never fuck my mum! I made sure you were sober when you promised that,” The scowl on his face turning sour as he took a swig from the cloudy bottle, swallowing the mouthful of sour booze with a frown. “Can we not talk about my ex-porn star mom for a split second?”

“You’re acting like we’d been speaking about her for longer than a second, Freddie, plus, y’know I wanna fuck half the women in LA and more than enough of them are still paid porn stars. If I wanted to fuck a has-been, I’d hook up with literally anyone else,”

“Have you even seen one of her actual movies?”

“Nope,” Peppa began rolling another joint, pulling the filters out of Emily’s front pocket as the girl dozed on in her barely alive, drug-induced state. “Never have and never gonna.”

“She was amazing on the silver screen, now the only screens she’s on are cum covered ones,” Using Freddie’s lighter to spark the end of the completed joint, Peppa reclined back into the couch and took a deep drag, exhaling through her nose. “I miss going to her premieres, man. They were so much fun.”

“How old were you at the prem-i…, prem…,” Despite having lived in Los Angeles for six years, Peppa had never lost her accent, the lilt of her vowels strange and not helping the pronunciation of her words. “...ieres, Freddo?” 

“Six,” 

“D’you even fuckin’ remember ‘em?”

“I remember lookin’ up a lotta skirts,” Holding the bottle to his lips with a cocky grin, Freddie finished off the bottle and dropped it onto the bean bag beside him. “Y’know a tonne’a starlets like to go commando?”

“Don’t tell me that, Fred! Or imma be sneakin’ into premieres to check out cooch,”

“I don’t understand your fuckin’ Coloniser slang, Pep,” Freddie mocked Peppa’s accent, right down to the mashed slurs of her words. 

“I’m not a fuckin’ coloniser,” Scanning the couch around her for something to throw, Peppa came up short for ammunition. “I’m too fuckin’ young to do that.”

“Slaver slang then, eh?” 

“That is so much fuckin’ worse,” Taking a drag from the joint, Peppa nudged the steel capped toe of her boot into Emily’s side, the passed out girl moving like a ragdoll at the pressure. Her dark lashes fluttered as her eyes moved quickly behind the veiny film of her eyelids. “D’you think she’s havin’ a nightmare or some shit?”

“I think she’s had two ecstacy pills and four shots’a tequila, that might just be her system deciding if it wants to die or not. Honestly, I’m kinda jealous,” Freddie leaned forward and poked his index finger into Emily’s eye. If she noticed having Freddie’s finger jabbed into her eye, she didn’t make it clear. 

“I’m kinda jealous too,” Across the room, Pedro suddenly released a loud retch as he threw up into a strategically placed bucket sitting between him and Gerald. “Well, Pedro is still alive.”

“Barely,” Pedro promptly passed the fuck out again, the collapse buffeted by Freddie’s tipsy laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

Welcome to Ashes and Rage!

The Peppa Pig story you never asked to read. If you're reading this then we hope you're ready for some absolutely childhood ruining content and that your love for Peppa Pig is not serious at all. 

We don't claim ownership to any Peppa Pig characters both regular and irregular but we do claim ownership for character personalities, storyline/s, setting, and other random things that seriously don't conform with beloved childhood TV show, Peppa Pig. 

Well, enjoy the most cursed content you may ever read in your life.

Sincerely,

RageAgainstThePeppa authors/artists; Chloroform, Bee, Rosie and Dove


	3. Bored, stoned, sitting in your basement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from 'Backstabber' by Kesha
> 
> So, you came back for round two if this bullshit, we applaud you!

“Fuck school,” Slamming the crushed metal door of her locker closed, Peppa shot a dark glare at Freddie, the young man himself currently holding an unlit joint between his lips as he fiddled with one of the bars pierced through his auburn haired fox ear. 

“Uh huh,” Finished with his piercing, Freddie plucked his lighter from his pocket and lit the blunt with a flourish, looking down the hallway appreciatively as Rebecca Rabbit jogged past in her tight fitting leggings. Freddie was a horn dog to say the least, he liked girls as much as they didn’t like him; an ass covered in skin-tight spandex was more precious to him than anything in the entire world. Rebecca knew she had killer curves and a body to die for from her ridiculously athletic lifestyle, and she liked to use her knowledge to her own benefit, making boys like Freddie who never had a chance salivate at the sight of her. 

“D’you even care what happened?” 

“Will you hit me if I say no?” He handed the smoking blunt to Peppa, people flooding the hallway as the school day drew to a close, they’d been back for two days and Peppa had already hit her ‘this place sucks, gimme a hit’ phase. She’d hit it much later than Freddie was expecting but he kept about as much track of her shitty moods as he did to her period. He didn’t want to know when his best friend was bleeding from her vag, so he didn’t really want to know who’d pissed her off.

Peppa punch Freddie in the stomach with a perfectly closed fist, jamming up into his sternum. “I’m gonna punch you anyway,”

“Then you’ll forgive me for sayin’ that I don’t care,”  
“Fuck you, Frederick Fox,”

“You already have, twice, Penelope Sage Marie Winnifred Pig,”

Handing the joint back to Freddie, the two began making their way down the hallway, the crowd parting for them to a certain degree as Peppa’s glare cut through anyone brave enough to look at her.

“I’m still tryna forget about that,” Taking the joint from Freddie, Peppa look a long drag and blew the cloud of smoke directly into the face of a not-so-random junior loitering to the side of the hallway. George Pig shot a devastatingly cold glare to his sister as he waved the sticky sweet smoke out of his face; the matted clump of black hair covering his left eye catching in his lashes as he shook his head angrily. “Why d’you think I drink so much?”

“‘Cause you’re an alcoholic, Pep,”

“Fuck you,”

“You know I’m right,”

“I would sooner die than admit that,”

“You love me,” Freddie bumped Peppa with his shoulder as they walked, taking a long drag from the cigarette.

“I absolutely do not,” Pausing their walk as they reached the end of the emptying corridor, Freddie pulled his phone out of his pocket and slid open a new message, handing Peppa the butt of the joint. “Who’s texted you?”

“Peddler,” Ah, so this was drug related. Freddie never called Pedro Peddler unless it was related to their little venture. Pedro was a chemistry wizard and enlisting him to help put together some new strains of their favourite recreational drugs had been the first step on their road to getting higher than the Empire State building. The venture had started out small, a couple acid pills passed between students here and there for loose cash but now they were getting into the big leagues. 

“What’s up with Peddler?” Grabbing Freddie’s arm, Peppa dragged her best friend into a silent side corridor and looked over his shoulder at the messages. “Oh shit, man. Lollipop’s sold nearly 3k worth of the product she got yesterday!”

“I have no clue how she does it but, Christ almighty, we made a good deal getting her on the payroll,” Freddie held his hand out for a fist bump.

“Do I look like I know what a jay-peg is?” Glancing over her shoulder, Peppa saw the ancient geography teacher stomping down the corridor with a terrified and resigned looking freshman jogging to keep up with him. “I just wanted a picture of a GODDAMN hot dog!”

“Fred, put your phone away,” Peppa pushed Freddie’s hands down, stopping him before he could finish writing his reply to Pedro. “Hog’s coming down the hall.”

Freddie looked up at the teacher and freshman as they passed, tucking his phone into his pocket. Hog was the kind of teacher who had a problem with technology; if he saw a phone, he’d take that phone and the likelihood of the owner getting their phone back was slim to none because Hog also had an addiction for pawning things. Peppa had a theory that he could only afford his mercedes because of the amount of phones he’d pawned.

“And when I say a hot dog, I do not mean the pornstar Hawt Dawg!” Hog’s attention flicked to Peppa and Freddie, eyes narrowing. “Miss Pig, Mister Fox, what might the two of you be doing in here after school?” Mr Hog caught the stub of the blunt, grabbing Freddie’s hand and ripping it toward him. “Please, Mister Fox, tell me that this is not the devils lettuce?”

“No, Hoggy Baby, this is premium, A grade weed grown in my very own backyard,” Freddie winked at him. Mr Hog grew very clearly uncomfortable and dropped Freddie’s hand quickly, sending the butt scattering to the floor. “Do you wanna taste?” Freddie whipped a full blunt out of his inner jacket pocket and held it out to Mr Hog, earning a dark glower from the boomer aged teacher.

“Refrain from bringing drugs into these hallowed halls, Mister Fox, or I shall have to have a word with your mother,” The freshman ducked behind Mr Hog. “Good day to both of you, Mister Pig, Miss Fox.”

Mr Hog continued down the hallway, the poor freshman scampering after him.  
Grinning, Freddie interlaced his fingers and placed them under his chin, fluttering his lashes at Peppa.

“Am I a pretty girl, Pepperoni?” Peppa reached out and pinched a sensitive spot below Freddie’s ear as hard as she could, bringing a small film of painful tears to his eyes as he rubbed his neck. 

“Don’t fuckin’ call me Pepperoni if you wanna keep your favourite part between your legs and not down your throat,”

“That doesn’t sound that bad, I could be the first guy to have ever sucked myself off,” 

“So readily you forget Marilyn Manson,” Grimacing, Peppa strode out of the hallway with her arms crossed, Freddie on her heels with a resounding laugh. “I fucking hate you.”

~~~~~~

“What do you mean Dr Elephant is away?!” Suzy held her massive, sparkling pink cased phone up to her ear with perfectly manicured fingers as she screamed down the line at Dr Elephant’s receptionist. “He was going to fix my nose!”

“Miss Sheep, he’s gone on holiday with his wife and daughters. I cannot bring them back any sooner than you can,” 

“You’re a bitch and a shitty receptionist. I HOPE YOU LOSE YOUR FUCKING JOB,” Without ceremony, Suzy hung up the phone and threw it across the room. “Why doesn’t he understand how important this is to me?”

“Suz, calm your farm,” Rebecca Rabbit was sitting on the floor in full splits, stretching out to her right ankle with her arms. Her disturbing flexibility is what made Suzy coerce her into joining the cheer squad but was then the reason why Suzy had to kick her out; watching Milo Moose eat her out while she was doing a handstand was something she definitely wanted to unsee but Rebecca was good company when Zoe was out of town, which Suzy had been fully aware of. Zoe was at an academic decathlon thing for the next two days, then she came home for a week before she was heading off to New York for a photography competition. “ZoZo is gonna be home soon and I’m sure you can just find another plastic surgeon.”

“F-FIND ANOTHER PLASTIC SURGEON?!” Suzy started to shake with anger, fists curling at her sides, Rebecca raised her hands in submission. “I CANNOT JUST FIND ANOTHER PLASTIC SURGEON!”

Resigned to her fate, Rebecca steeled herself for Suzy’s oncoming rant about how her family made Dr Elephant and that he owed it to her to be here when she needed him.


	4. You call it crime, we call it smart family business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from 'Bust your kneecaps' by Pomplamoose

“Pedro, com’ere,” Pedro looked up from the papers of numbers and formulas splayed out in front of him on his desk in the family study, his head resting in his hand as his pen hovered over a ledger of Lollipop’s sales from the last month and how much she was owed. Sitting in his wheelchair in the doorway, Sig Martinus Pony ushered his son over with a limp hand. “My boy, oh my boy,” The thick accent of his Venetian born father undercut with the gravelly tenor of someone who’d been smoking since he was too young to remember. “Come to your father, Pedro,” Crossing the room, Pedro ducked so his father could grasp his face in both ring laden hands and press kisses to both his son’s cheeks. “Is that school work?”

“Si, Padre, it is,” 

“Portia!” Sig Pony yelled down the hallway for his caretaker, Pedro’s youngest sister, Portia. “Take me to the family room. Portia,” Heavy footsteps came thumping down the hall as Portia ran toward her father, wiping her hands on her apron as she came, brunette curls fanning behind her. “You need to lose some weight, Portia.”

Pedro grimaced at his little sister as she grabbed the handles of her father’s wheelchair and took him to the family room, Pedro walking along behind them with his hands shoved in his pockets. Glancing over her shoulder, Portia smiled sadly at her brother before turning left down the corridor and placing her father before the roaring hearth.

“Sit, my son,” Martinus gestured to a plush leather chair across the persian rug from where he was positioned. Hesitantly, Pedro sat and crossed his hands in his lap. “Portia, bring your brother and I the whiskey, the nice glasses too but do not touch them with your filthy hands. That crystal is too fine for you to dirty. Also, if I find that you have taken a single sip of my fine whiskey, I will have you married off faster than you can remember your own name.”

Fisting her hands into her apron, Portia bowed and scurried from the room, leaving her father and brother alone.

“Is there something wrong, Padre?” In reality, Pedro didn’t care. His dad was an asshole who treated his sisters like garbage, the old man could announce that he was cancer and was dying and Pedro wouldn’t give two shits. 

“No, my son, only good news,” How good could the news be if his father was giving it? “Prudence is pregnant, a third grandchild for your mother and I. If she keeps having healthy boys, then maybe I shall think her less useless than she has proven herself over the last sixteen years but my news is more than just your sister’s pregnancy.”

“Um, okay,” Portia returned with the bottle of whiskey and glasses on a perfectly polished silver tray, her arms shaking from the weight. Placing the tray carefully on the mahogany table beside her father, she ducked a shallow bow and left the room as quickly as she could without running. 

“I have a job for you, my son, my beautiful boy,” Martinus picked up the blown glass bottle and pulled the stopper free, holding the lip up to his nose so he could inhale the spicy musk of the whiskey deeply. Pouring a small amount into the crystal glasses, Martinus reached one over to his son who took it with surprisingly steady hands. Pedro took a sip, tipping his head back to down the glass in one go, the liquid burning his throat pleasantly. This wasn’t his first rodeo when it came to whiskey and his father knew that. “I’m sure you’ve heard of the upstart drug ring, Hell Bent or something equally as ridiculous, and I’m sure you’ve guessed that their business has affected ours.”

“Yes, I have,” Martinus poured his son another glass of whiskey. Of course he didn’t know that Pedro was involved in Hell Bent, it was Freddie who ran it anyway but the poor guy knew nothing about numbers or chemistry, it was amazing he could write his own name to be quite honest, and Fred would be completely lost without him. If Pedro wasn’t there to write up recipes for their stock or handle ledgers to pay their dealers, Freddie might still be selling chicken shit weed from the back of his van near the pier. 

“Well, one of their little rats has found its way into our stock, Pedro, they are stealing our cocaina and we need that cocaina to keep the Mexicanos off our backs,” Pedro was also completely aware of the missing cocaine, he’d been complicit in it being stolen after all, seeing as he’d been the one to take it and mix with some psychedelics that then had them making 75k a week. “I want you to find the little rat, my son, and kill them. Once you have completed your task, there will be a new one for you. One much larger and more important.”

“Are you going to be cryptic about it or are you going to tell me what the second task is?” 

“So smart, so wonderful you are, my son,” Martinus smiled at his son, the deeply ingrained lines of aged face wrinkling with his joyful expression. “That is why you are going to become the new mafioso once I die.”

The only words Pedro was paying attention to were ‘once I die’.

“But you must earn your seat, my boy, you must kill me. The family will only respect you if you kill me,” Pedro had to admit that the offer to kill his father was tempting to take right then and there, he knew there was a pistol down the side of the chair with a full round inside it but he couldn’t be bothered just yet. Let his dad try to track down the mole within his organisation for a little while, none the wiser that it was his own son, his heir. “You are so smart, so much like your mother, my beautiful Izabela. You will be the perfect mafioso for the Pony Clan, my boy.”

“Grazie, Padre, grazie,” Pedro leaned forward to clink his glass against his father’s before they threw their heads back and finished off their shots, placing their glasses on the tables to their sides. 

“Prego figlio, Mio,”

~~~~~~~~

“Tails, we have a problem,” Shutting his bedroom door quietly, Pedro locked it from the inside and collapsed onto his plush double bed.

“You’re on loudspeaker with Perky, Peddler, you’re gonna wanna choose your words carefully,” The slight static in the background of Freddie’s end of the line told Pedro that both he and Peppa were hanging in Freddie’s basement, probably waiting for the ledgers so they could separate out the cash they owed their runners and keep what was left for themselves.

“It’s not anything Perky shouldn’t hear,”

“I fuckin’ hate when you call me that,” Peppa’s voice cut into the conversation, she sounded angry, as usual, but the static drowned out the cold inflection of her voice. 

“Too late, Erky Perky, you’re our perky gal. Now tell us what’s happening, Peddler,” There was a faint clatter in the background as Freddie dropped his phone onto the coffee table. “It’s not Lollipop, is it?”

“Nah, it’s not Lollipop, it’s one of our suppliers,”

“Whaddaya mean it’s one of our suppliers?” The grating rumble of Peppa’s voice drowned out the prickling static. 

“Well, they didn’t really know that they were a supplier but they’ve now figured out that they are and aren’t very happy about it,”

“Who were the suppliers, Peddler?” Freddie’s voice grew deadly serious as he took the phone off loudspeaker and pressed it to his ear.

“The Italian mafia,”

“How the actual fuck did you manage to steal product from the Italian fucking MAFIA!?” 

“It’s easy when you’re dad is the kingpin, Tails,” 

“You mean to tell me that you’re partaking in organised crime, Pedro?” Peppa yelled into the mic on Freddie’s end, making Pedro hold his phone away from his face from the jarring pitch of her voice.

“What do ya call us, Pep?” Freddie laughed, turning loudspeaker back on. 

“Disorganised crime, duh,”

“Fair, fair,”

“Hey, you call it crime, Peppa, but we call it smart family business,” 

“So what’s Mr Mafia Boss-man wanting to do about us leeching his product?”

“Well, my dad has asked me to kill myself,” Pedro rolled over on the bed and looked up at the grey painted ceiling carved with crowns and swords.

“Do it, pussy,” Peppa and Freddie spoke at the same time with varying degrees of seriousness. 

“You’re both absolutely horrible,”

“We keep you in business, Peddler,” The sound of a lighter clicking meant that Freddie and Peppa were lighting up. They’d never sell something they wouldn’t smoke. 

“I’m keeping you in business, Perky,” Pedro’s patience was wearing thin.

“Then find a way out of it, Peppa and I have some weed that needs smokin’, ta ta for now, Peddler,” Freddie hung up, leaving Pedro alone on his bed with his phone beeping into his ear.

“Fuck you, Freddie,” Rolling off the bed, Pedro headed to his desk and pulled a pre-rolled joint of of one of the desks, flicking the lighter from his pocket open, he lip the tip of the blunt and inhaled deeply. It was time for him to light up too, he guessed, his alcohol tolerance was so high nowadays too that it was unlikely that the whiskey would hit him at all.


	5. Now she wants to light you on fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from 'Teacher's Pet' by Melanie Martinez

Chewing on the end of her pencil, Candy watched Mr Rabbit pace across the room with a copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, reading the lines as he walked in front of the desks. He was so dreamy, his tall stature and beautifully built body, the brown tan of his skin paired with the tawny of his hair and the sparkling blue of his thickly lash framed eyes. Spinning on his heel, Mr Rabbit began his path back across the room as he spoke, Candy’s eyes zeroed in on the firm roundness of his ass, a small cotton puff tail poking out from his dark, acid washed jeans. The rolled sleeves of his dark blue button down straining against the thick muscles of his arms, rounded glasses sliding down his long nose. 

“Candy?” Snapping out of her reverie, Candy spun and faced Freddie Fox who was sitting behind her with the mop of his dark auburn hair partially braided and sticking up in long, clumped strands. “What’cha lookin’ at?”

“Leave me alone, Frederick,” Candy turned her eyes back to the worksheet on her desk, pressing the tip of her pencil to the paper.

“He’s pretty hot, eh?” Freddie leaned forward and whispered in Candy’s ear, pushing his desk into the back of her chair slightly. Sitting to Freddie’s left was Peppa, arms crossed over her chest as she glared daggers into the side of Mr Rabbit’s head, she wasn’t going to stop Freddie messing with Candy. If anything, she wanted to see where it’d go; Candice Cat was a good catholic girl after all, even if there were rumours going around that she’d let anyone use her back door because the front was reserved for the Lord. 

Suddenly jamming the tip of her pencil into the table with immense strength, the graphite crunched into the wood and tore through the paper. “You shouldn’t say such things, they are not God’s way,” Gripping her pencil tightly, Candy unzipped the pristine white pencil case before her and pulled out a sharpener.

“C’mon, Sweet cheeks, you’d like ta see him on his knees, wouldn’t you?” She could hear the dirty smirk in his voice as Peppa exhaled sharply through her nose. Of course Peppa was listening, there was very little in Penelope Pig’s life that was considered sacred anymore; let alone parts of her peers lives. What was everyone else’s was Peppa’s and what was Peppa’s was also Peppa’s; that’s the way the world worked at Eden high. “You might even like to see him on his knees in front of me before he’s doing it before you.”

“The only time anyone should be on their knees, Frederick,” She spat his name like poison. “Is to beg our merciful lord to save their soul. Premarital intercourse is sacrilegious, Mr Rabbit certainly would not partake in such heinous actions.”

“Is there a problem, Candice? Freddie?” Mr Rabbit had stopped in front of Candy’s desk, sending her cheeks flaming. Freddie leaned back in his chair and cocked his head at the teacher, raking his eyes up and down the older man’s body with overt appreciation. “If you keep looking at me like that, Freddie, I can and will poke you in both eyes.”

“You wouldn’t do that to your favourite student, sir!” Placing a hand over his heart with his mouth agape, mocking utter horror, Freddie grinned at the teacher.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t do that to my favourite student but I would do it to you, Freddie, now please stop bothering Candice as she, unlike you, has college applications to worry about,” Giving a small smile to Candy, Mr Rabbit began reading again, the rest of his class as disinterested as Peppa. At the back of the room, Rebecca Rabbit, Mr Rabbit’s niece, was playing with a hand strengthening tool as her sports headphones pumped high energy music into her ears, her leg shaking the entire table as Suzy Sheep made duck faces into a filtered photo app on her phone, using the window to her right as a backdrop. Peppa looked at Freddie and made an ‘L’ shape with her fingers on her forehead, sending the boy into a fit of intentionally unrestrained giggles.

“Did that get you all hot under the covers, Kitty Cat?” The laugh caused by Peppa still in his tone, Freddie returned to mocking Candy. She could feel his breath on her neck, sending a shudder down her spine with a disgusted grimace.

“Freddie-,” Mr Rabbit had noticed Freddie’s return to mocking Candy about her crush on their literature teacher, his words were cut off by the bell as the class hastily grabbed their things and left. Looking resigned, Mr Rabbit snapped his copy of The Importance of Being Earnest closed and sighed, rubbing his long fingers into his eyes. “Freddie, Peppa, please go.”

“With pleasure, Mr Rabbit,” Peppa slung the strap of her stachel over her shoulder, lip curled ever so slightly as she rounded the table and fixed a searing glare directly into Mr Rabbit’s gaze. He’d been teaching at Eden high for two years and each time he saw Peppa Pig, he grew more and more wary of her. While on playground duty, he’d watched the girl whip out a switchblade and cut a chunk of her own hair from her naturally pink bob that had become matted with gum. He’d seen that same pink handled switchblade on three more occasions since and there was no doubt in Mr Rabbit’s mind that she carried that weapon everywhere. “Freddo, let’s fuckin’ go.”

“Alright, alright, Pep,” Freddie picked up his own bag and climbed over the table, grinning up at Mr Rabbit as the teacher visibly grimaced. “Check ya later, Rabbinator.”

“Goodbye, Freddie. Goodbye, Peppa,”

“Fuck you, Rabbit,” Peppa stuck her middle finger up at Mr Rabbit as she left the room, Freddie close on her heels as she pulled a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and held one between his lips. Rubbing his forehead, Mr Rabbit groaned and sat on the desk beside Candy as she packed up her things.

“I’m sorry for their behaviour, Sir,” Standing, Candy smoothed her shin length pleated skirt down and checked the security of her tucked in peter pan collar blouse, she only became conscious about her appearance when she was around Mr Rabbit. She knew that she was made how God would want her to be, she was his daughter and thus she would always be beautiful in his eyes but something about Mr Rabbit made her want to be beautiful in the eyes of an earthly man not just the eyes of the celestial perfection of her lord. 

“You don’t need to apologise for them, Candice. I know that home isn’t the most wonderful place for Peppa currently, there’s lots of reasons why she’d be acting out like she is,” He gave Candy a mournful smile, she subconsciously fiddled with the gold plated crucifix dangling at her collarbone. “And Freddie, well, Freddie is Freddie and I think he’s so far into his bad boy persona that he’s lost sight of who he actually is.”

“I’ll pray for them then, Mr Rabbit,” Candy spoke with such innocent earnestness. “Surely God will save them. He is a wonderful and merciful lord, if anyone can save Penelope and Frederick, it is him.”

“That’s very kind of you, Candice, I’m sure that there is much God will do to help them,” Mr Rabbit placed a gentle hand on Candy’s shoulder after she had secured both straps of her pure white backpack to the perfect length. “You should go, I wouldn’t want you to miss your tutoring for the primary schoolers.”

“Thank you so much, Mr Rabbit,” Her smile was glaringly bright, her eyes shining with happiness at his comment. “Goodbye!”

“Goodbye, Candice,” Mr Rabbit waved to Candy as she left the room with a bounce in her step.

!~~~~~~~!

“Did he give you what you wanted, Lollipop?” Freddie was leaning against the locker beside Candy’s, a lit joint between his lips, he plucked it out with his fingertips and blew a long cloud of smoke out toward her. Candy grimaced at the nickname, he generally only used it when it was drug related, she even had a secondary phone just to keep her part-time ‘job’ as far away from her parents, friends and rest of her life as possible. 

“Leave me alone, Tails,” Spinning the combination dial several times until it unlocked. “Why didn’t you leave with Peppa?”

“Peppa has her own shit to deal with, her mom called her as we were heading to mine and she had to dash home. So now I’m gonna bother you, I guess,” Freddie shrugged, raising the blunt back to his lips and taking a long inhale. “Did you give him the ole sucky sucky?”

“You are a disgusting human being,” Looking at the mirror in her locker, Candy fiddled with her crucifix so it was sitting perfectly in the hollow of her collarbone and smoothed the long locks of her air around her face so they hung perfectly. “Mr Rabbit would never engage in premarital intercourse, Frederick, and neither would I. Your insinuation that either of us would do such an awful thing is disgusting.”

“You’re definitely into Mr Rabbit, aren’t you?” Freddie held the blunt out to Candy, she declined a smoke with a wave of her hand.

“I must admit that he is a charming man with many wonderful qualities but I am much too young and the lord would not want me to even consider affection for him beyond platonic until I am, at the very least, of age,”

“C’mon, Lollipop, you don’t actually believe that, do ya?” He cocked his eyebrow as he took a drag, tipping his head slightly.

“Goodbye, Frederick,” Candy slammed her locker closed and left without a second word or glance over her white clothed shoulder. Remaining where he was, Freddie watched Candy leave, sucking in a deep lungful of cloying, sweet smoke. 

“Oh Candy, you don’t know what I know,” Running his fingers through his hair, Freddie unhooked himself from the locker and made his way down the silent corridor, hand in his pocket as he finished the blunt between his fingers.


	6. Ain't no big thing, show her a little swing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all,
> 
> It's Archie, formally Rosie! And I'm here with an update! Ashes and Rage has lived in my damn google drive for ages and I'm bored enough to actually give you guys more chapters. If you're reading this, you're insane but you chose to keep reading and that's not my fault! Bee and Dove have no idea that I'm doing this but anyway, this is less of a chapter summary and more of an author's note but I'm fucking lazy, leave me alone.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy this hot mess of a chapter, more will be coming if I can figure out our 70 odd storylines.
> 
> Enjoy, you maniac,
> 
> Archie :P

“What do you fuckin’ mean you’re getting remarried?” Peppa slammed her hands down on the kitchen table as she shot a hell-fire glare at her mother. The older woman had tied her pink hair into a high bun, round glasses sliding down the slope of her nose as she shook her head at her daughter. 

“Peppa, please calm down,” Winifred Pig put her head in her hands, a sob bubbling in her voice. “Your father and I haven’t been working for a very long time and Dave, Dave just treats me right.”

“Do you really think I give a flyin’ fuck about you and Dave or you and Dad?”

“I-i thought...because of your response?” Peppa released a loud, mocking laugh at her mother’s words. 

“Well, I’ve got a fuckin’ issue with you marrying Danny’s grandpa but like I’m gonna be able to fuckin’ stop you, Winnie,” It had been a long time since Peppa had called her mother by anything other than her birth name. She felt that her mother had lost the right to be her mother when she’d cheated on Mr Pig with David Dog, the grandfather of Danny Dog. “I’ve got a fuckin’ issue with you wantin’ me to go to a fuckin’ wedding.”

“You used to love weddings, Peppa,” Peppa scoffed.

“Weddings are just funerals that you wear white to, I don’t wear white,” Winifred pulled herself up from her chair and crossed the kitchen to her daughter, arms splayed wide to pull her daughter into a hug. 

“You’d look so beautiful in white, honey, you would make the most wonderful bridesmaid,” Peppa jumped back immediately as her mother advanced, still attempting to embrace her daughter. 

“Come one step closer,” Pulling her switchblade from her pocket, Peppa flipped it open as held it out to the mother, Winifred immediately pausing her advance toward her daughter with her hands raised in fear. “And there won’t be enough left of you to get married.”

“Peppa, please put the knife down,” Winifred’s voice turned pleading, she didn’t want Peppa to stab her and she’d long lost the optimistic hope that her daughter wouldn’t willingly harm her. If Peppa wanted to stab her, Peppa would and there would not be a single ounce of regret in the teenager’s body for doing so.

“You’ve also forgotten about your fuckin’ kids, Winnie. Have you even fucking noticed that I don’t even live here anymore?” 

“Wh-wait what? You were here last night?”   
“I haven’t slept here since you and Joseph split,” Peppa flipped her switchblade closed and shoved it back in her pocket, crossing her arms and cocking her hip with annoyance. “Fuck if I know where George is, by the way, I saw him at school yesterday but I haven’t seen him since. Don’t look at me like that,” Winifred’s face had turned worried at the mention of her son’s disappearance. “He’s probably alive but I don’t give a shit. He’ll come home when he’s hungry.”

“You’re underestimating the naivety of your brother, Peppa, George is a child,”

“George is 16 years old,” Eyes narrowing, Peppa turned harsh, cold. She hated talking about her brother, she hated anything to do with him, but she knew that he wouldn’t want to be treated like a kid anymore. George would do it for her, so she would do it for him. “He’s not a kid anymore. Fuck, George’s done shit that would make your hair curl, Winifred.”

“I have a fuckin’ switchblade, Mum, George was the one who sold it to me,” 

“Peppa, honey, I just wanted to ask you to be in my wedding. I really didn’t want to have an argument, why does everything have to be an argument with you?”

“You’re a piece of shit, Winifred Pig, fuck you,” Storming from the kitchen, Peppa threw the backdoor open and mounted her bike, slipping her headphones into her ears to drown out the angry thud of her heart with bass boosted beats as she rode to Freddie’s place to get as high as she possibly could.

~~~~~~~~~

“Oh hello, Peppa,” Sharon Fox answered the door when Peppa arrived, the older woman’s auburn curls tamed into a thick plait hanging over her left shoulder. It was uncommon to see Mrs Fox at home, let alone answering the door for her son, but Peppa had seen her Tesla parked in the driveway and decided that maybe she should knock instead of walk right inside. “Freddy’s just in the basement.” Sharon moved to let Peppa inside. Peppa followed the route to the comfortingly familiar basement. 

Freddie sat in his usual spot on the worn bean bag, high as a kite. Peppa just huffed and sat down as angrily and noisily as possible just to catch Freddie’s attention. He slowly looked over to Peppa, steam practically coming out of her ears. “Your mum?” Peppa nodded curtly. “What’s this batch called?” Peppa inspects a pill baggie from a bowl of many. Classy. “Chigaco.” He says drowsily before passing out. Peppa cracks a smile. I guess it is now, she thinks to herself. Peppa looked over to the sleeping boy in the bean bag, looking absolutely ridiculous with his height, all hunched over. It felt like all her worries and anger from the incident from her mother were all gone, like when she smokes, except this time she was sober, and she could truly feel it. The pure, platonic love and appreciation she shared for Freddie. Dumb fox.

~~~~~~~~~  
Freddie’s head was still swimming as he shut his locker door. That new shit they made, whatever the fuck he called it, was still hitting him 11 hours later. He shook his head, his auburn hair falling in his eyes as he rested his forehead against the cold metal of the locker.

“You look like death warmed up,” There was genuine worry in Candy’s eyes as she stood beside him, clutching her books to her chest with sincere innocence. Pressing the back of her hand to his temple, she chewed her bottom lip slightly. Fuck, she really didn’t know what she did to him did she? Was Candy so utterly unaware of how fast she made his heart beat when he knew that there wasn’t anything in his system and how he lost all train of thought when she entered a room? Or maybe she did know and was using it against him. “You’re very warm, Freddie, you should go to the office.”

“‘M alright,” He tried to wave her off but he had no strength left to put into it, his hand flopping slightly as he half heartedly raised it and flipped it to the side. “Jus’ tired, ‘s-all.”

“You don’t look ‘just tired’,” Candy did air quotes as she said the words ‘just tired’. “Give me your phone.”

“Why?” He wasn’t in the mood to argue but she was talking to him and he could use a little sympathy from the pretty girl standing beside him. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken as much of the new drug as he did but there wasn’t anything Freddie could do now to go back in time and undo his idiocy. 

“I’m calling your mother,”

“No,” Shaking his head against the locker, Freddie watched the world at his feet swim lazily as a headache began to pound at the base of his skull. 

“For once in your life, Frederick Fox, listen to me,” She was getting agitated and annoyed, he could hear it in her voice. 

“Why?”

“His phone is in his jacket pocket, Candy,” Peppa’s voice came out of nowhere as he felt a hand dip into his bomber and free his phone. “I’m gonna be late for chem so his mums number is under ‘Sharon’. Don’t do anything dumb, Freddo.”

The sound of Peppa’s booted feet stomping down the hall almost drowned out the buzzing in his ears as his world spun into another blurry whirlwind of linoleum and wood. 

“I’m surprised that she actually goes to class,” Freddie tried to crack a smile at Candy’s words but the stretching of his face muscles into a grin sent a jolt of lightheaded heat through his skull. “Hello, Mrs Fox? Yes, I’m a friend of Freddie’s, my name is Candice. Your son is very unwell and I don’t think he’s in any condition to stay at school.”

There was muffled talking from his phone but Freddie was too out of it to attempt to pull the device from Candy’s hands. 

“Well, he’s leaning against his locker and he looks very pale, he’s warm too, Mrs Fox. Yes, I used the back of my hand,” More muffled speaking as Freddie’s mother responded to Candy. “I’ll take him to the office and let them know that you’re on your way. Oh, Freddie’s father will come and get him instead? Alright, I’ll let them know. Thank you very much for your time, Mrs Fox, goodbye.”

Candy sighed before she slipped Freddie’s phone back into his jacket pocket. “I’m not going to be able to move you,” She scanned the almost empty corridor for a moment. “Mr Rabbit? Mr Rabbit! Can you come here for a second please?”

The heavy footsteps of the teacher approached Freddie and Candy, a bubbling anger began to simmer in Freddie’s gut as Mr Rabbit arrived, hands tucked into his pockets as his shiny black shoes appeared in Freddie’s peripheral vision.

“Is everything okay here, Candy?” Mr Rabbit sounded concerned, making Freddie’s head hurt from how much fury was swirling in his veins. He had no right to pretend to care about Freddie, all he truly cared about was getting into the pants of vulnerable girls like Candy. “You don’t look very well, Freddie, is he why you called me over here?”

“Yes, sir,” She sounded so sweet, so sincere, it made Freddie’s heart ache. Why was this asshole of a teacher messing with her like this? Yeah, Candy wasn’t new but she was naive, she happened to be the only person in Santa Monica who didn’t know that Mr Rabbit liked sleeping with students. Fuck, he’d gotten a senior pregnant last year and her parents had moved as far away from Santa Monica as they could get to make sure he had no contact with their daughter or her child. “Can you please help me move him to the office? His mother is coming to get him soon.”

“Alright,” Grabbing Freddie’s arm, Mr Rabbit looped it around his neck and half dragged the semi-unconscious boy to the office, Candy following a few paces behind them to make sure that they made it. “Hey Bec, I’ve got Freddie Fox here, his mom is coming to get him soon because he’s unwell.”

The front office woman poked her head out of the sliding glass window to peer at Freddie. “He looks awful, Zander,” Unlocking the door into the sick room, Miss Bear evaluated Freddie. The way his head hung, allowing his chin to bounce against his chest with every slight movement; the mucus running from his nose and cresting over his pale, cracked lips; his slumping form relying completely on Mr Rabbit to be able to move; he was struggling to keep his eyes open too, yellowed gunk attempting to cement them closed with each laboured blink. “Put him on the bed.”

Hovering at the door, Candy watched Mr Rabbit deposit Freddie on one of the metal framed beds pushed against the far wall of the sickbay. She wrung her hands in her lap as she stood and observed Freddie’s heaped form on the stiff mattress. 

“Thank you, Zander, for bringing him up here,” Miss Bear smiled, her cheeks dusting pink as Mr Rabbit’s intense gaze met hers.

“It was actually Candy who found him, so she’s the one you should be thanking,” There was a warmth to Mr Rabbit’s tone that had a weird tingling begin to spark somewhere below Candy’s stomach. She didn’t know what was happening but her body felt hot and she couldn’t think straight.

“Alright,” Turning to face Candy, Miss Bear spoke with a less breathy and affectionate tone than she’d used for Mr Rabbit. “Thank you, Candice. Please return to class now.”

Bowing her head slightly, Candy bid goodbye to the two teachers and glanced at Freddie quickly before scurrying off to class, the tingling warmth from how Mr Rabbit had spoken about her being the one to thank for finding Freddie still sending sparks up her spine.


	7. Crazy = Genius

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SHORT ASS CHAPTER

“Dan,” Suzy dragged the vowels in Danny Dog’s name out as she whined, collapsing herself into him as he tapped out a message on his phone. “Danny!”

“What do you want?” Danny snapped out of his focus on his phone and glared at his girlfriend. He couldn’t remember why he’d agreed to date Suzy, and, now, almost two years into their relationship, he wasn’t any more attached to her than he had been before he knew she existed. 

“Pay attention to me,” She slumped into him further, her head slipping down to rest in his lap as they sat together on the grass with their friends. 

“I’m doing something right now, give me a second,” He spoke through gritted teeth as the blonde in his lap pressed the crown of her head against his crotch slightly with a sly grin. Even if she wasn’t good company, she was a good fuck and, at this point in time, Danny wasn’t sure he had the desire to find someone who was both good company and a good fuck. Everytime Suzy got on his nerves, or the sight of her made him want to break things, he thought of his football scholarship to Black Hawk and how murder would definitely put him in their bad books. 

“What’s more important than me, Danny?” Suzy tried to make her glassy blue eyes wide, innocent, as she fought with his phone for his attention. 

“Lots of things are more important than you, Suze, now give me a fuckin’ second, I’m talkin’ to my grandad,” Huffing, Suzy settled herself back into Danny’s lap and returned to her bitching with her two best friends. Danny’s grandad was his legal guardian until he turned 18 in a few months time and the fact that his grandfather was marrying Peppa Pig’s mother had strained the relationship between the two. Grandad Dog was the only family Danny had left, since his mother and father had died almost 17 years ago now in a devastating car crash that had also claimed his little sister. Danny was too young to remember Venus and Marco Dog, he didn’t even remember how it’d felt to have a little sister; his grandad was the only family he’d ever known. 

“Danny, isn’t your grandad marrying that bitch, Peppa Pig’s, whore mother?” Emily Elephant’s voice was just as annoying as Suzy’s, the nasally inflection she put on her words immediately causing a headache to form at his temples. 

“Please don’t call Winnie a whore, Emily,” Danny was done with this conversation, Dave and Winifred were happy and as much as Danny disapproved of the relationship he wasn’t going to try and ruin this for his grandad. Dave Dog hadn’t been genuinely happy since his daughter, son-in-law and newborn niece died, Danny couldn’t actually remember a time before he’d met Winifred where his grandad had looked...free. “Just because you don’t like Peppa doesn’t mean you can slander her mom, okay?”

Emily scoffed. “That whole family is a family of whores, including the little one,”

“George?” There was only one member of the Pig family young enough to be called ‘the little one’ and Danny was completely aware of the fact that George hadn’t met the criteria of ‘the little one’ since he’d turned 12. The kid sold knives on the side and knew his way around them pretty well, if Danny was to so much as drop a hint that Emily had infantilised him, George would have her at blade point screaming an apology. 

“Like I fucking know,” Lounging back onto her hands and ripping a large chunk of grass free from the already spotty lawn.

“Stop insulting her, Danny, or I swear to god, you aren’t going to get laid for, like, ages,” Suzy really didn’t know how appealing that actually sounded to Danny but he decided to keep his mouth shut, it was best to just endure Suzy Sheep instead of try to fight back. There was no winning with her. “I’m your plus one to the wedding, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Danny waved the question away, not even looking at Suzy but instead gazing across the courtyard toward the electronics building where Peppa and her friends hung out and smoked during school hours. The school had tried to stop them several times but after Sharon Fox had paid them off with a ridiculous sum of money and sexual favours to the principal, they’d stopped trying to get the teens to stop. Danny couldn’t explain it but there was something about Peppa and her friends that made him want to push Suzy off him and join them. He’d had a crush on Peppa since she’d moved to Santa Monica but there was no hope in hell that he’d be able to take her out now, seeing as he had a girlfriend and he was 90% sure she was dating that Freddie Fox kid.

“What’re you looking at?” Grabbing Danny’s chin, Suzy dug her sharply manicured fingers into his skin and forced him to look at her.

“Nothing, I just zoned out,” Her lips curled, she knew he was lying but she really couldn’t be bothered to argue with him right now. Suzy released a loud, forced laugh and flirtily swatted Danny’s arm.

“You’re too sweet, Danny!” Confused, Danny looked down at his girlfriend with an absent smile. “He said that he was so blinded by my beauty that he lost focus!”

“Aw, Danny, I didn’t know you were such a romantic!” Looking up from her sticker covered laptop, Emily Elephant beamed at Danny and pushed her glasses back up her nose with a plainly manicured finger. 

“Uh, yeah, thanks,” Sheepish but absolutely done with this conversation, Danny resigned himself to listening to Suzy and her gang’s idle chatter until the bell rang and he could mercifully escape to chemistry. 

~~~~~~~

“Pep, Pep, Pep, Pep, Pep,” Tapping Peppa on the shoulder each time he said her nickname, Freddy Fox was dazed and stoned out of his fucking mind.

“What?” Annoyed, Peppa whirled on Freddie and smacked his hand away from her, a smoking blunt still held loosely between her fingers.

“I forgot if we gave that new drug to Peddler,” 

“The Chigaco?”

“The what?” Weed mellowed gaze suddenly turning sharp at the mention of the new drug concoction Freddie had created all by himself, and then taken alone in his basement. 

“The Chigaco, that’s what the drug is called,” Lifting the blunt to her lips, Peppa inhaled deeply and brushed her pink and black fringe out of her eyes with blackened fingers. “‘Cause I found you in your basement high as fuck on it and when I asked you what it was you said ‘chigaco’, so that’s what it’s called now.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Pep,” Slowly, Freddie’s weed addled expression returned and a smile broke across his face. “That’s fuckin’ genius.”

“Do you even remember what you were trying to say or what imaginary question you were trying to answer when you came out with it?”

“No motherfuckin’ clue but that doesn’t make it any less brilliant, bro,” 

“You’re fuckin’ insane, Freddie Fox,”

“I know, it’s part of the reason why you love me,”

“I don’t love you, dipshit, I barely tolerate you,”


	8. All I ever wanted was the world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MILDLY INCESTY

Lying on her bed, staring at her roof, Candy tried to clear her mind of all the impure thoughts that had chased her home from school that day. She knew it was against the word of the Lord to think these thoughts, and about her teacher of all people, but Mr Rabbit had so many alluring qualities that took free rent in her head.

Pressing her thighs together, Candy tried to quell the strange warmth that was pooling somewhere below her stomach. She didn’t know what the warmth meant but she knew that it was against the rules of her church, the warmth came from impure thoughts and such thoughts were not to be had by good girls. Sitting up, she fisted the fabric of her skirt in her hands and huffed out a sigh through gritted teeth, Mr Rabbit was her teacher and she was his student. The thought of never being anything more than Mr Rabbit’s student made her chest hurt in a way she couldn’t explain but she knew that the pain was necessary, she knew that she’d have to feel it if she ever wanted to pass into the next life without the weight of her sins stopping her from doing so. 

There came a knock against Candy’s door frame, shaking the girl free from her reverie. In the open doorway stood Candy’s mother, Catherine Cat, her auburn hair tied in an immaculate, perfect chignon at the base of her neck and her white silken dress clinging to her slim frame perfectly, the hem reaching the modest length of just below the older woman’s knees.

“Candice,” Locking eyes with her daughter, Catherine clutched her hands loosely in front of her chest. “Why are you not doing your homework? The Lord would be displeased to hear of you neglecting your studies.”

Suddenly realising that she’d been lying on her bed in a pool of impure thoughts for the past two hours, Candy felt an incredible wave of shame begin to rise in her chest. The Lord would not be pleased to know that she was squandering the time on Earth he had gifted to her and wasting the education he had made her capable of having. 

“I’m sorry, Mother,” Releasing her skirt, Candy crossed her room to her desk and sat down immediately in the high backed chair before it. Leaning against the desk was her school bag, still zipped closed with her homework nestled safely within, still encased in its protective folder. “My mind decided to wander.”

Raking her eyes up and down her daughter, despite the teenager’s back being to her, Catherine maintained the serene, innocent smile that was curved on her nude painted lips as the emotion in her eyes grew colder. Candy could feel each sweep of those icy russet eyes across her skin, freezing fingers of permafrost scraping their nails against her flesh and leaving goosebumps in their wake. 

“You are better than distraction, Candice,” Catherine’s smile remained unfaltering as her eyes pinpointed a single unruly lock of hair on the back of Candy’s head and sent a shiver down her daughter’s spine. “I expect to review what you have done once your work is completed and once I have done that, we will have dinner. Knowledge opens the world to you, Candice, it was a gift from the Lord to us and, as women, we must not waste the opportunities his teachings have given us.”

“I won’t waste the opportunities he has given me, Mother, I promise,”

“Do not promise me what you cannot provide, Candice. Give me the result of your hardwork and dedication. What do you want?”

“I want the world, Mother,”

“And you shall have it, as long as you don’t throw away everything you have been given,” Turning around, Catherine left Candy alone in her room. The faint click of Catherine’s heels against the pine wood floors of the Cat family home drilling into Candy’s ears and replaying like a mocking symphony.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking down the long, mahogany hallways of the Pony Mansion, Pedro focused on cleaning his glasses on a small patch of his shirt. A thousand thoughts swum around in his head, sums and deals, suppliers and distributors, people who owed him money and people he owed money too; the thoughts were so loud and invasive that he didn’t notice Portia until he’d knocked her to the floor. The silver tray and all its contents went clattering to the floor beside Portia, scalding hot water spilling free from the over-polished silver kettle and onto the young Pony girl.  
With a yelp of pain, Portia tried to scramble away from the spreading puddle of boiling water. Her hands and knees had already come into contact with the water, some ever splashing up over her arms, neck and face. Pedro’s sight seemed to tunnel vision as he leapt over the mess and scooped his little sister up into his arms as she cried out in agony. 

“Oh my god, Portia, I’m so sorry, I’m so, so, so sorry,” Pressing his little sister’s face into his neck as he carried her away from the mess he’d caused, Pedro tried to keep the waver out of his voice. Silent sobs wracked Portia’s chest as she clung to her brother, warm, salty tears seeping into the fabric of his shirt. Carrying Portia to her room, Pedro set the young girl down gently on her bed and carefully pulled her hands away from her face. Burns had already started to bubble across her skin but Pedro knew that she would fight him if he tried to get her into a cold shower without taking a moment to explain why.

A large, purple bruise tinted with yellow and green at the edges revealed itself as Pedro pulled his sister’s hands free from her face. Anger rose in his chest but he pushed it down, he could only deal with one problem at a time and soothing Portia’s burns was his top priority.

“I’m going to put you in the shower, okay, Portia? It’s going to be cold but it’s what you need for your burns,” Pedro spoke in as calm a voice as he could manage. Once Portia had nodded, Pedro scooped her back up and carried her into her ensuite before setting her gently down on the floor of her shower, still fully clothed. Turning the water on, Pedro rolled his sleeves up and moved Portia so she was better positioned under the stream of water. As Portia’s clothes began to stick to her skin, Pedro turned away from her and focused his eyes on the lilac tiled floor before him. “You’ve got to stay in there for at least twenty minutes. I’m gonna go clean up the mess I made and get you something warm and soft to wear, and I’m also going to call Dad’s doctor so he can come and have a look at you.”

She gave a mumbled response before Pedro left the bathroom, leaving his little sister alone. Guilt roiled in his gut, she’d been through enough with their father, Pedro had seen the bruises Martinus Pony’s beatings had left on his youngest daughter. He’d seen the twisted, swirl-like bruises on her wrists from being gripped too tightly while she tried to pull her arm free, he’d seen the deep fingertip inflicted bruises that matched the size of their father’s grip on her neck. Despite all of the harm that had befallen her, Pedro couldn’t shake the acidic guilt that threatened to spill into his veins as he thought of the possible scarring that could disfigure Portia for the rest of her life all because he couldn’t look where he was going. 

He knew his father was a monster but, in this single moment of grief and remorse, he felt as though the most abhorrent, monstrous member of the Pony family was himself. 

Hands shaking, Pedro walked to his room and dialled the Pony family’s preferred doctor. His skin felt like it was burning from the inside out, he felt ashamed and dirty and monstrous. He’d harmed his little sister like his father did, and he’d never lifted a hand to protect Portia from the wrath of Martinus Pony, even if he had once prided himself on never being as bad as his father he’d been passive and that was a much worse crime to have hanging over his head. On the third ring, Dr Bear picked up.

“Pedro, has something happened? Is your father okay?” Hate bubbled in Pedro’s chest as Dr Bear asked after Martinus, he didn’t want to be associated with his father anymore...especially after hurting Portia. “Pedro?”

“No, Dr Bear, it’s not my father, he’s fine. It’s Portia,” Even through the phone, Pedro could feel the change in Dr Bear’s demeanor. Dr Bear had delivered all of the Pony children and grandchildren, and even if he wouldn’t admit it, he had a soft spot in his heart for Portia. 

“Is she alright?” The doctor’s voice was soft, tentatively worried. “Martinus hasn’t broken anything has he?”

“No, it’s not my father this time, doctor…,” Pedro paused, his heart sinking as he admitted his crime to the doctor. 

“Don’t blame yourself, Pedro, this was an accident,” It was only once Dr Bear’s soothing voice cut through the swirling torment and guilt that clouded Pedro’s mind that the teenager realised that he’d completely bared his soul to the doctor. 

“I-I’m so sorry, Dr Bear, I shouldn’t have info dumped like that,”

“Pedro, it’s alright, please don’t apologise. I’m leaving now and I’ll be there soon, please check on Portia and make sure her body temperature doesn’t drop due to being in the cold water. We don’t want her getting hypothermia on top of her burns,”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sitting in the basement, the air thick with sweet smoke, Freddie took a long drag from the hand rolled cigarette held between his thumb and index finger. Life was hell. Why did girls like Candy want fuckwits like Mr Rabbit? Why did he have to watch her swoon over him when she could be infatuated with literally anyone else? Fuck, Freddie wished she was gay. Candy being gay would be easier to accept than her liking a douchebag like Mr Rabbit. 

Footfalls thudded down the stairs before the basement door was flung open and Pedro Pony stood in the dim hallway light, illuminated from behind like some weird angelic being. If Freddie hadn’t known exactly how dangerous and intelligent Pedro was, he would’ve laughed at the sight but even his drug dampened brain knew not to mess with Peddler when he looked as distraught as he did currently.

“Yo, dude, what’s up?” Leaning forward in his chair, Freddie fought back a wave of dizziness with a lazy half smile. Slamming the door behind him, Pedro strode toward Freddie and pulled the cigarette out from between his fingers before taking the longest drag Freddie had ever seen. 

Blowing a cloud of smoke out of his nose, Pedro collapsed into the chair beside Freddie and groaned loudly. “I tipped boiling water on Portia,”

“Holy shit, dude,” Freddie’s mind cleared for a second before the haze crept back in and he felt his tensed muscles slacken. “Like, on purpose or by accident?”

“Accident, what kinda cunt do you take me for, Fred? Why would I intentionally hurt any of my sisters? You know how badly my Dad treats them, I would never follow in his footsteps,” Pedro took another long drag from the blunt. 

“‘S she okay, though?”

“Yeah, the family doctor is takin’ care of her, she’ll be fine, dunno if I will be though to be honest,” 

“Just have some weed and you’ll be fine, though I have absolutely no problems hitting the hard shit tonight if you need it,”

“What do you mean by hard shit, Fred?”

Freddie grinned widely, his eyes glinting in the scant illumination of the basement like a predator who had finally caught its prey.

“Oh, Peddler, you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into,”

“I already keep your books and run your product, we smoke half the shit we make and you wanna tell me I have no idea what I’m fucking in for? Hit me with it, bitch,”


End file.
